Grant Is Earmarked for Electronic Health Records

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently awarded a$100,000 grant to the American Academy of Family Physicians. The grantwill support a pilot program to provide electronic-health-record software forthe health care industry. The grant is part of the Bush administration's planthat a majority of Americans have electronic records within 10 years.

The funds will help the physician group to plan, implement, and evaluatea pilot whereby participating medical practices will adopt low-cost, standards-basedelectronic health records. The industry group will support and trackthe crossover to electronic records in these practices and learn what factorsencourage or hamper the physicians' adoption of the technology.